Henry Beston's Philosophy...
From The Outermost House, by Henry Beston
"Whatever attitude to human existence
you fashion for yourself, know that it is valid only if
it be the shadow of an attitude to Nature. A human life,
so often likened to a spectacle upon a stage, is more justly
a ritual. The ancient values of dignity, beauty, and poetry
which sustain it are of Nature's inspiration; they are born
of the mystery and beauty of the world. Do no dishonour
to the earth, lest you dishonour the spirit of man. Hold
your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who
love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she
gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless
tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honour
the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas;
rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of
life are the earth's, and they are given to all, and they
are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear,
and dawn seen over ocean from the beach."
From Journey to Outermost House,
by Nan Turner Waldron
"Henry Beston did not write "The
Outermost House" about himself, or about the Fo'c'sle.
It is about a setting alive with the living. Romeyn Berry,
referring to 'The Outermost House,' in an Ithaca Journal
Review, wrote: 'It is less about either the place or the
people and more of how Cape Cod makes you feel and what
it does to you,' and I would add 'for you,' because I believe
that being close to the natural environment inspires a quest,
perhaps inherent to Man, to understand human nature. Beston's
sensitive understanding of a man's need to recapture his
relationship with the total environment is a timeless message,
something which every human can seek, no matter where he
or she roams. John Graves wrote in 'Goodbye to a River,'
'One river seen right is all the rivers in the world.' The
world of the Outermost House is a really a microcosm, an
'anywhere world,' which is different things to different
people."
